New Study Shows Positive Results for Georgia's Pre-K Program

Georgia's kids are doing better than their national peers in math, language and nearly every other category thanks to the pre-kindergarten program. That's what a new study conducted by the University of North Carolina says. But in 2011 the state cut the pre-k school year from 180 days to 160. Pre-k teachers also saw a 10 percent pay cut.

Suzanne Tanner is the principal at Westside Elementary School. She said "due to financial reasons they needed to make a full salary. They were not able to take a financial cut in their salary so they asked to come out of pre-k and to fill any slots that we had open in K through five so we feel like we lost a lot of veteran teachers."

Ginger Taylor is a Pre-K teacher at Westside Elementary. She said "so many people were so qualified and loved teaching pre-k and then they had to leave and it's just sad."

In total there have been more than a million kids to have gone through the pre-k program in Georgia in the last 20 years.

Governor Deal has announced plans try and reinstate Georgia's pre-k program back to a 180-day school year. It could happen as soon as the next academic year.

Online Public Information File

Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or fccinfo@fcc.gov.